Short answer
To resize video for Instagram Reels, export it at 9:16, usually 1080×1920, at 30 fps or higher. Crop a centered subject such as a face, pad full-width content onto a 9:16 canvas with a blurred or branded background, or recompose screen recordings so the important UI fills the frame. Keep text and buttons out of the top 14% and bottom 35%.
The usual reason to resize video for Instagram Reels is that the original was made for YouTube or a website at 16:9. A center crop of a 16:9 frame to 9:16 keeps less than a third of the width. For a talking head that's fine. For a product demo it cuts off the sidebar, the data and the button you're about to click.
Below are the current Reels specs, the three resizing methods and when each one works, ffmpeg commands you can copy (the crop and scale steps were run on test clips before publishing), and what the auto-reframe features in common editors do.
Instagram Reels size and specs (as of October 2026)
Instagram's help center says you can upload a reel with an aspect ratio between 1.91:1 and 9:16, with a minimum frame rate of 30 fps and a minimum resolution of 720 pixels. Full-screen vertical is 9:16, and 1080×1920 is the usual export size. Meta's ad spec for Reels recommends 1440×2560 for ads, in MP4 or MOV.
On length, Instagram's help page says you can record and edit reels up to 20 minutes, but reels over 3 minutes won't be recommended to new audiences. If reach beyond your followers matters, stay at 3 minutes or under. For a product clip, far shorter is better; how long should a demo video be covers that.
- Aspect ratio: 9:16 for full screen (uploads accepted from 1.91:1 to 9:16).
- Size: 1080×1920 for organic Reels; 1440×2560 recommended for Reels ads.
- Frame rate: at least 30 fps.
- Safe zone: Meta's Reels ad spec asks you to keep at least 14% of the top, 35% of the bottom and 6% of each side free of text and logos. On a 1080×1920 frame that's about 270 px top, 672 px bottom and 65 px each side.
Those margins are published for ads, but organic Reels lay the account name, caption and buttons over the same bottom and right-hand areas, so they're a sensible default for any Reel. That leaves a box of roughly 950×980 pixels for anything people must read.
Three ways to resize video for Instagram Reels
Crop: zoom in and lose the edges
Scale the video up until it fills 1920 pixels of height, then cut a 1080-wide window out of it. It's fast and fills the screen, and it works when the subject sits in the middle: a face, a product shot, a phone held up to the camera. You can slide the window left or right, or animate it, to follow the action.
Pad: fit the whole frame and fill the rest
Scale the video down until its width is 1080, then place it on a 1080×1920 canvas. Nothing is lost, but a 16:9 video becomes a band about 608 pixels tall in the middle of the screen. Fill the space above and below with a blurred copy of the video, your brand color, a headline or the captions. This suits charts, slides and anything where cropping would remove meaning.
Recompose: rebuild the layout for vertical
Rearrange the content for a tall frame: one panel at a time, larger text, the clicked element zoomed and centered. It's the most work, but it's the only method that makes a screen recording or app demo readable on a phone. If you recorded the screen, recomposing means re-editing with keyframed zooms. If the video is built from layouts, you lay it out again at 1080×1920.
Which method fits your source video
| Source video | Best method | Why | Watch out for |
|---|---|---|---|
| 16:9 screen recording or product demo | Recompose | A center crop keeps under a third of the width; padding leaves the UI too small to read | Buttons and labels drifting into the bottom 35% |
| 16:9 talking head or live action | Crop (centered or following the subject) | The subject is usually near the middle | Hands, products or captions at the frame edges |
| 16:9 slides, charts or full-width text | Pad with blurred or branded background | Every part of the frame carries meaning | The content band is small; add a headline above it |
| 1:1 square | Pad and use the space for a title and captions | A crop to 9:16 loses about 44% of the width | Leaving the bars empty, which looks unfinished |
| 4:5 portrait | Crop if the subject is centered, otherwise pad | Cropping removes about 30% of the width | Text near the left and right edges |
| 21:9 ultrawide | Pad, or recompose | A crop keeps under a quarter of the width | Thin content band once padded |
| 9:16 at another size (720×1280, 2160×3840) | Scale only | The shape is already right | Going below Instagram's 720-pixel minimum |
Resize a video to 9:16 with ffmpeg
These commands assume a 16:9 file called demo.mp4. Each re-encodes the picture with H.264 at high quality (`-crf 18`) and copies the audio unchanged. The scale and crop commands were run on generated test clips and produce 1080×1920 output; the pad and blur filters follow the syntax in the ffmpeg filters documentation.
- Center crop: `ffmpeg -i demo.mp4 -vf "scale=1080:1920:force_original_aspect_ratio=increase,crop=1080:1920" -c:v libx264 -crf 18 -c:a copy demo-reels.mp4`. The scale fills the frame without distortion, then the crop keeps the middle.
- Crop from one side: `ffmpeg -i demo.mp4 -vf "scale=-2:1920,crop=1080:1920:0:0" -c:v libx264 -crf 18 -c:a copy demo-reels.mp4`. The last two numbers are the x and y offset of the window; raise x to slide it right.
- Pad with black bars: `ffmpeg -i demo.mp4 -vf "scale=1080:1920:force_original_aspect_ratio=decrease,pad=1080:1920:(ow-iw)/2:(oh-ih)/2:black" -c:v libx264 -crf 18 -c:a copy demo-reels.mp4`. Swap black for a hex color such as 0x0F172A to use a brand color.
- Pad with a blurred background: `ffmpeg -i demo.mp4 -filter_complex "[0:v]split=2[bg][fg];[bg]scale=1080:1920:force_original_aspect_ratio=increase,crop=1080:1920,boxblur=20:2[bgb];[fg]scale=1080:-2[fgs];[bgb][fgs]overlay=(W-w)/2:(H-h)/2" -c:v libx264 -crf 18 -c:a copy demo-reels.mp4`. One copy is cropped and blurred to fill the screen; the other is fitted to the width and laid on top.
Check the result on a phone before posting. A preview on a big monitor hides how small padded text really is.
Auto-reframe in video editors
Most editors can now reframe a landscape edit for vertical automatically. They track a subject and keyframe the crop for you, which works well on people and moving objects and poorly on software screens, where the important thing is a small button rather than a face.
- Premiere Pro: Sequence > Auto Reframe Sequence makes a duplicate sequence at the target aspect ratio, with Slower Motion, Default and Faster Motion tracking presets. Adobe notes it doesn't work on still images.
- Final Cut Pro: Edit > Duplicate Project As, choose Vertical or Square, and tick Smart Conform to reframe mismatched clips. Final Cut Pro then shows the overscan so you can adjust the framing by hand.
- DaVinci Resolve: Smart Reframe uses AI to reframe a clip for a new aspect ratio, and since version 20.1 a Mode menu can limit it to pan only, tilt only or both, which helps when a crop should only slide sideways.
Whichever tool you use, review every shot. Auto-reframe makes confident wrong choices, such as following a moving cursor off the field it was filling in.
Making product demos for Reels in the first place
If vertical is a regular destination, plan it rather than rescuing a 16:9 edit each time. Script shorter scenes, show one panel per shot, use larger type, and keep captions inside the safe box. Our notes on demo video resolution and formats and native video on social platforms go further.
Tools that build the video from layouts can render each shape natively. DemoVexa, for instance, recreates your app's UI from its code and renders 16:9, 9:16 (1080×1920) and 1:1 versions of the same video, plus an Instagram Reels cover. For a single landscape clip you already have, the ffmpeg crop or pad above is quicker.
Questions
What size is an Instagram Reel?
A full-screen Instagram Reel is 9:16, and 1080×1920 pixels is the usual size. Instagram accepts uploads from 1.91:1 to 9:16 at 30 fps or more and at least 720 pixels, and Meta recommends 1440×2560 for Reels ads.
Can I post a 16:9 video as a Reel without resizing?
Yes, Instagram accepts ratios up to 1.91:1, so a 16:9 video uploads. It fills only a band across the middle of a tall phone screen, though, so text and UI become small. Pad it with a headline and captions or recompose it for a better result.
Does resizing a video reduce its quality?
Any resize re-encodes the video, which loses a little quality, and cropping 16:9 to 9:16 also enlarges the remaining pixels by about 1.8 times. Start from the highest-resolution master you have and use a high-quality setting such as -crf 18 to keep the loss small.
Make product videos from your code
DemoVexa reads your app's code, writes the script, adds a voiceover and animates your real screens in 16:9, 9:16 and 1:1. Try it on your own product: 14 days free, no card.
Sources
- Instagram Help: Record a reel on Instagram (checked 29 October 2026)
- Instagram Help: Reel size and aspect ratios (checked 29 October 2026)
- Meta Ads Guide: Video ad specs on Instagram Reels (checked 29 October 2026)
- FFmpeg Filters Documentation (scale, crop, pad, boxblur, overlay) (checked 29 October 2026)
- Adobe: Add Auto Reframe effect to sequences in Premiere (checked 29 October 2026)
- Apple Support: Create square or vertical versions of a project in Final Cut Pro (checked 29 October 2026)
- Blackmagic Design: DaVinci Resolve 20.1 New Features Guide (checked 29 October 2026)
DemoVexa publishes this guide and makes a product video app, so we have a stake in the topic. Facts about other products and platforms come from the sources listed, on the dates shown, and can change. Corrections are welcome through our contact page.